Recent Researches in American Music

The five string quartets of George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931) are important works in the composer's oeuvre, which hitherto, unfortunately, were hardly accessible. In contrast to the first three quartets, premiered in 1878, 1879, and 1886, and published earlier by A-R Editions (A58), the later quartets demonstrate Chadwick's mature style. The fourth and the fifth quartets were premiered in 1896 and 1901 by famous Boston ensembles, the Kneisel Quartet and the Adamowski Quartet, respectively. In both works, the formal conception is more liberal than before, revealing Chadwick as a composer at the height of his career. Besides their structural qualities the quartets display characteristics and sonorities that commentators labelled "Irish," "Gaelic," or "American," thus referring to what became part of Chadwick's very personal musical signature. His contributions to the highly ranked genre of the string quartet must be considered milestones in the repertoire of late-nineteenth-century chamber music. In these works, Chadwick demonstrated his skills as an eminent and individual composer, who proudly could declare that "my music is my own" and who wished for just one thing, to be "discovered at last!" This edition will contribute to making his music better known, primarily by making his quartets accessible, and also by providing an elaborate essay in which the genesis, reception history, and structural details of the works are considered in the context of the genre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
    Chadwick as a Chamber Music Composer
    String Quartets Nos. 4–5
    Notes
Plates

String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor
I. Andante moderato; Allegro
II. Andantino semplice
III. Giocoso, un poco moderato
IV. Finale: Allegro molto risoluto

String Quartet No. 5 in D Minor
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andantino
III. Presto e leggiero
IV. Allegro vivace

Critical Report
    Sources
    Editorial Methods
    Critical Notes

George Chadwick's Strings Quartets 1–3 are available in A58.